The tone argument

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

3. Yup, but they're the ones who need to learn, too.

You can understand what they're saying just fine, even if it's not worth reading.

And the audience isn't a uniform mass. Some are around specifically to troll, and you'll never get through to them, no matter how measured and focus-group tested your message. But hopefully at least some small percentage of those who read can learn to accept the painful truths, at least in part. Maybe more and larger ones over time.

And, some others, and I think you can name a certain name as soon as I say this, will proclaim themselves the best ally you've got, and then turn around and in the same comment proclaim that none of the truths you've tried to point out to them are in the least bit real. To me, that's the most frustrating kind of trolling to deal with.

Many of us are somewhere in the middle - we accept some of the truths, resist some of them the first time (or first few times) we're exposed to them, and slowly take hesitant steps towards a fuller understanding.